Contiguity of Placebo Administration and Misattribution

Abstract

From Schachter's (1964) theory of emotional behavior it was proposed that the quality of an emotion could be manipulated if the physiological concomitants of the emotion were attributed to a placebo. The importance of the contiguity between the onset of arousal and the administration of a placebo upon fear reduction was tested. Half of the 96 young women volunteers were first given a placebo and then information concerning forthcoming electric shocks. The sequence was reversed for the other half of the Ss. The placebo-arousal sequence had no effect upon fear reduction. A second question investigated was the nature of the symptoms that were attributed to the placebo. It was found that only those Ss who misattributed both physiological and psychological symptoms showed evidence of fear reduction.